“2.0”… Shankar’s by-now tedious formula is saved by his imagination and a spirited Superstar

A meme popped up on my Twitter timeline this morning, saying that Rajinikanth is the only actor in the world who’s been in four kinds of films: black-and-white, colour, animation and 3D. I thought up another meme after watching 2.0, Shankar’s follow-up to Endhiran. Rajinikanth is the only actor in the world to do hundreds of roles in the same film, as both human and humanoid, in avatars that range from small to normal-sized big to super-big… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 2.0 appears to pick up where Endhiran left off. If you remember, the ending leapfrogged 20 years, when Chitti (the good robot, whose rogue version gives this film its title) was an exhibit in a museum. So it surprised me, in this sequel, to see that Sana (Aishwarya Rai, who we see only as an image on a phone) is still the scientist Vaseegaran’s girlfriend. (Forget dating. This has begun to veer into the realm of carbon dating.) And she’s still as annoying, constantly sulking that Vaseegaran is not paying her any attention. At least, she’s not reduced to a garlanded photo on the wall. Sorry. Scratch that. At least, she’s not reduced to a shimmering hologram whose backdrop keeps alternating between the seven wonders of the world. I forgot for a second that we are in a Shankar movie.

Instead, we have Amy Jackson as a machine named Nila. Is this Shankar’s cunning metaphor for the fact that the heroines in our commercial cinema are essentially mechanical creatures mooning around the hero — essentially a “domestic purpose robot”? But Nila, it must be said, does function as the brawn to Vaseegaran’s brain. She kicks some amount of ass, while still doing “womanly” things like watching mega-serials. I don’t judge her, though. You have to do something to not die of dullness around Vaseegaran, who is surely the most colourless protagonist in the Rajinikanth oeuvre. (He keeps jabbering about NASA, ISRO, and… Interpol.) Playing the bookish straight guy is one thing. Playing a flat-out bore is quite another. I mean, the cardboard cutout outside Kasi theatre has more life.

Was waiting for this review. expected it to be hilarious and you didn’t disappoint.. I have not seen it but i pretty much expected this from my experience with previous shankar enterprises. i might watch it or i will wait for petta to see a full on Rajni film. As i said in one of my comments, shankar is now all about his items. Having a strong story or screenplay looks detrimental to his imagination. its just one big set piece after another. this might make a lot of money for its visual pyrotechnics . But it makes me wonder, what is the use if a sound designer genius like resul pookutty rewriting algorithms and bringing out new technology when the director has no idea how to put it to good use.

I don’t think I will be able to convince my husband to watch this with me; when we watched Endhiran in Bombay (full-on reclining seats; ushers coming in to take your snack orders and bringing them to you on trays in the interval), he ate his samosas and fell asleep. 🙂

The film sounds like fun – at least, I know the ambience in the theatre will be fun!

It takes no ordinary skills to make a film with such a trashy premise so inert. In a bid to tie up together all his pet themes and tropes, he makes the personas of his two big stars cancel each other out, and neuters what could have been the craziest eco-horror film for our age into a “science fiction” film

apala: I’m trying to understand how they thought Kamal (or any other major southern actor) would play such a generic villain — someone who is not even seen in flesh and blood for most of his screen time.

“I’m trying to understand how they thought Kamal (or any other major southern actor) would play such a generic villain — someone who is not even seen in flesh and blood for most of his screen time.”

Maybe they thought kamal would do it as a vada for the indian-2 masala dosa but kamal was smart enough to recognize that indian 2 cannot be made without him anyway…Or else they might have thought kamal would do it cause he hasn’t had a blockbuster in a while (though I feel each crore a vishwaroopam earns is equal to 10 crores a shankar movie earns). Anyway with Kamal involved maybe the character would have been developed further to make it as good as rajni’s…

Since Kamal had started to even shoot for enthiran initially…I wonder how that movie would have been…Ditto for sharukh khan…Even both of them could have made the movie work but those would have been from rajni’s enthiran.

BR,
That’s why I am surprised at this piece of information from Jayamohan – just by naming the character Bakshirajan and all related mythological/historical links does not justify this level of a generic character and expecting that to be taken up by Kamal (I can only speak for him as you know that I am FANBOY!) is beyond me! Kamal can simply do more Big Bosses, at least he gets to do way much more there – than on this role could ever demand.

With Endhiran, his first pick was Kamal Hassan. Then when Rajini took over, he obviously changed the characters to suit his persona. I doubt if he had the scene with the Robot taking on a multi-handed god like image before Rajini joined. That was such a perfect play on Rajini’s own god like image. If Kamal or Arnold Schwarzenegger took on the villain’s role then the scenes would have been more evolved to suit their personas. With Akshay, I think, was a last minute addition after all the production issues it went through, to merely gain a bigger market. So that’s why Shankar didn’t putting in as much to the character.

My short pithy review would be, first half was okay. The immediate post-interval section was bad, I really dislike Akshay Kumar as an actor and this section was just unbearable.

Then that last 40 minutes, just an amazing experience – and Rajni just being awesome, I cannot think of any actor in the world who could pull off what he did in those last 40 minutes.

Things that did not work for me: Akshay Kumar, the actor, his character and what he wanted in the flashback portion was so unrealistic that I could not sympathise with him.

I still have a problem with the character of Vaseegaran, but less so than the first film, he is such a flawed character, it is hard for me to root for him. That discussion around if Chitti turned bad again and killed people, he refused to say he would take responsibility and effectively blackmailed the CM in to bearing any responsibility.

To digress as this really made my day—— (This is why I am on internet…….. 🙂 )

I am 54 years younger than you. I just finished high school with average marks. But even I can tell you that WEATHER IS NOT CLIMATE. If you want help understanding that, I can lend you my encyclopedia from when I was in 2nd grade. It has pictures and everything.

“lycamobile is headquartered in united kingdom but lyca movies is headquarted in chennai. Moreover Lyca movies is a private company. Hence any lyca production is considered a tamil movie made in India”

M.A.Yusuf Ali is UAE based business man…But at the end of the day he is a malayali no?…

Yes it is a tamil industry product to a large extent no doubt..but just like anything made by arcellor mittal would european, at the end of the day Subaskaran is a Srilankan…So this whole taking pride in an Indian production thing (as said by Resul Pookkutty) seems absurd…This wouldn’t have mattered in a normal medium budget movie where you could argue that it is an indian director’s vision executed in india with indian actors…but here the budget/scale is one of the main aspects and the producer is irreplaceable…Also all the vfx have been outsourced to hollywood newzealand etc and probably those studios took a pay cut considering the limitations of the market for this movie…So there is a lot of benevolence of western studios too involved…And then you (resul) poop on them saying they r invading our market…What abt resul working in hollywood movies wasn’t he invading their technical side then? Resul wanted everyone to watch slumdog when he won the oscars…So there was no problem of hollywood invading us then?….Overall i feel this is not an indian production in the truest sense…Bahubali was more of an indian production, my dear kuttichathan was an indian production.

I have nothing against foreigners investing in indian movies or them working in our movies — in fact they should in aspects we r weak at but then we shouldn’t take the credit for their work…2.0 has great vfx and makes india proud —- no, it has great vfx gifted to us by hollywood studios cause of investment by a sri lankan

I have seen subaskaran in interviews and he seems like the nicest guy… And i am not a nationalist in fact my rant is against ppl who make this movie abt nationalism and india — my point is as audience we watch a movie for its merit…If it comes from hollywood it doesnt matter to us…Make good movies if you want us to watch…

Ok, forgive me for loving your humor without even trying to understand what the movie really is. The fault lies in your gems:

“writing is so mechanical, you suspect Nila spat out the script after being fed the Shankar To-Do List of Plot Points”

“He might have called this film Toucan: Ek Prem Katha. Or Airtel–lift.”

“it would make all the difference between 2.oho and 2.uh-oh!”

However, fascinated by the things you mentioned about the horse shoe magnet and the transformations: “A bedroom turns into a death trap, vibrating with ghostly mobile-phone beeps. A road transforms into a silver tsunami.”

Right from a v.a sreekumar menon coming out of nowhere and talking like he’s Spielberg… And the entire media and fans blindly believing all his claims…

Initially I thought I was missing something and probably this guy was some bigshot talented guy I knew nothing abt due to my ignorance… Then I heard he did all the merriboy ads with manju warrier and I lost my shit…

Plus this guy keeps saying mohanlal will win national award, mohanlal will win Oscars with my movie etc — it is the tone on which he says these things like if it wasn’t for him poor mohanlal would be a nobody whose talents would remain unexplored poor him he could only work with greats like lohithadas, padmarajan, bharathan, sathyan anthikad, IV sasi… And mohanlal is the dumbest when it comes to these things he is never able to differentiate genuine praise from sycophancy… Mammootty too has his share of sycophants but I don’t think anyone would dare make such claims abt him.. He’d feel rightfully insulted when a newcomer says you’ll get national award and all (i mean not that it’s impossible but atleast start shooting don’t say these things at the launch phase)… The malayalam film scene is as it is filled with wannabes and this guy appears out of nowhere and sets new bars, levels to clear and become the gold standard…

And then all the hype around mohanlal’s performance in the shooting set… His plastic surgery to make him look more like sreekumar menon… Then that lacklustre teaser… The horrible trailer(i enjoyed it in a so bad it is good way)… The whole hype around them… I can’t bear the thought of another pulimurugan like success… I take movies too personally I guess when a bad movie becomes a hit it ruins my mood…

I think the whole circle jerk of media hype , fan hype, veteran directors praising sreekumar menon and mohanlal, sreekumar menon making tall claims etc. are better understood by people who follow malayalam news media like manorama online, mathrubhumi etc… Outside kerala probably mohanlal has a bad image cause of the me too issue… Here everytime some negative news abt mohanlal comes out the next day some odiyan hype is created to neutralise it.. Dunno what is it with odiyan even otherwise outspoken prakash raj has taken a neutral stand on mohanlal’s me too comments… Maybe it is written into their contracts that they should praise mohanlal and sreekumar every chance they get… Maybe the entire industry was invited to a hotel like rajni in sivaji and antony perumbavoor made them sign contracts where they have to praise mohanlal and sreekumar…Mohanlal has a share in travancore court so probably that meeting was held there…Btw antony perumbavoor owns ashirvad cinemas which produced mohanlal’s movies, has mohanlal’s photo in its logo, and scripts are definitely selected by antony (this last point is not sarcasm)…Also ashirvad’s theatres owned by antony are always inaugurated by lal…Anyway this is all normal cause businessmen always accompany an actor all the time wherever they go…

I am not a mammootty fan btw… Movies like great father and bigb where he’ll take revenge only stylishly despite massive tragedies deserve a rant too…

Sanjana: Probably puLLinam is pakshi’s equivalent in Tamil & it appears in the lyrics of one of the songs too.

As an aside, found this short story “Visumbu” by Jeyamohan shared in Twitter. From the looks of it, 2.0’s primary conceit seems to be inspired from this story – like how En Iniya Iyanthira and Meendum Jeno inspired Enthiran.

The trailer and the making videos gave away too much. When PakshiR’s flashback was happening, I was hoping it got over soon as we already know what happened and was waiting for bad chitti to arrive.

Emotional disconnect with PakshiR’s character was because it was played by a NorthIndian hero whose movies people in TamilNadu might not have watched a lot. A Vikram playing that role would have connected more with Tamil audience even if the character was a bit underdeveloped.

I think there are no writers/directors that suit Rajini today.. either he has to quit or play powerful character/villain roles in budget films. As a fan its agonising to see the fall of superstar…Every decision of his seems to backfire whether its films or politics..

Am surprised and disappointed by some of the comments here…you aren’t satisfied with an Indian working abroad, neither with an Indian showcasing his talent within India. So what do you expect?

Agreed Shankar outsourced VFX to weta digital and is produced by an outsider, but the very idea, thought, vision and execution is very much Indian. And this makes it An Indian movie.

Almost all Hollywood movie vfx is done in India and a big portion of them are produced by Chinese, but they are still called Hollywood movies and nothing else.

So we Indians should come out of colonial inferiority complex of whining and cribbing at ourselves and should pat and support ppl who are paving way for us to compete in global markets. And that’s Shankar’s true achievement.
Enjoy the movie guys!😀

I understood the previous comment from Odiyan hater as a rant against using nationalism as a crutch to support the movie.
A movie should stand on it’s own and not seek a plank of national pride as a reason for promotion.

Hollywood VFX movies involve a global team too but they don’t go around chest thumping about how Hollywood is setting the standard for the world etc. The proof is in the pudding.

Sanjana: I presumed you knew Tamil and just wanted to know a synonym for paravai (which is the commonly used term, like chidiya). PuLLinam is chaste Tamil and not common parlance. 🙂

My tamil is not that good. And I have lost touch with south Indian languages including telugu after I shifted to the north of Vindhyas. I am not familiar with chaste tamil. Now I have become neither here nor there. I like to hear old songs of any language even if I dont understand the lyrics fully. They sound so melodious.

So it’s a reverse vigilante movie? I mean from Shankar’s perspective. Usually his Vigilantes turn out to be the good guys and sort of get away with vigilantism in the end (Indian, Anniyan, Gentleman…. ).

@ Odiyan .. cant agree with you more . The whole Odiyan promotion is getting cringeworthy and all the tall claims of Sreekumar Menon who don’t even have any body of work to showcase , shut the mouth and show that in the movie is what I always want to say . Now after the trailer I really feel its going to be a let down and I am secretly hoping it is

Adding to your points around where all they going wrong , you may need add the whole episode announcing ‘Randamuzham’ – looks like they never had a plan to make the movie and Odiyan was his only true product – Any news around Randamuzham (1000 crs budget and all that nonsense !) was just used as a promotion for Odiyan (for the uninitiated the writer M T Vasudevan Nair is in courts to get the script back !) . I really doubt whether Sreekumar Menon even read Randamuzham as no one in his right sense can see Mahabharatham in Randamuzham !

Was it just me or did Rajini look tired (or was the age showing)?. I am disappointed that this was again another could’ve been great after Kabali and Kaala. I don’t how exactly to put it in words, it feels like with every new movie of his, the glow and aura around him seems to fade more and more. Maybe Petta will bring joy.

I liked the movie. The VFX and the imagination behind them were world class – way better than I thought they were going to be. There was no fluff, crass nonsense or even songs. The message resonated with me (despite the pseudo science, but in the current TN climate, people will be only too happy to buy in to the pseudo science. Still, I don’t expect anyone to bring down any cell phone towers – whatsapp won’t work then no?) I found the climax tedious, but was otherwise engaged. I hope the movie does well – it really IS something.

@existential: Rajini IS old though, so old! I felt bad watching him do the moves in the end credits song. He’s seventy and they still won’t let him not do dances.

I watched the movie fd and I thought the movie was just fine the way it was. It made the child in me as happy as it becomes when it watches a good Marvel superhero movie (ignoring all the logical, scientific and emotional loopholes). In fact, putting this movie on the same pedestal as any Marvel franchise movie, this is the most invested I was in a superhero movie villain (at least Pakshi has a motivation shown in trademark Shankar flashback). Also loved Shankar using his trademark flashback for a movie villain for the first time to justify his cause. I felt this was the most hero-worthy fleshing out of a villain’s character that a superhero movie deserved and that gave enough emotional stir in me to keep me invested while watching the movie. BR’s recent rating of Shankar movies made me watch Mudhalvan yesterday and even that movie had it’s plot points which I felt were terribly dated for this time (CM diffusing the bomb himself in climax, the double decker bus fight in an otherwise purpose-driven one day CM agenda, etc.). Had BR’s blog catered enough audience during those days, I’m sure even Mudhalvan would’ve been panned by a lot among us (or did it?).

@anaon : ” Rajini IS old though, so old!”
Yeah true but isn’t being old one thing and him coming across as tired another? Maybe I should’ve rephrased it. He looks tired and probably the fact that he was ill during some portions of the shoot clearly shows. Age showing is all right I guess, but when you are playing a robot and when you run, it comes across as effort. That is what I was looking to get at.
Dance was never a strong suit of his but yeah he isn’t the most graceful of people when it comes to movements I guess. I shrank in my seat watching that song.

Did anyone else think this movie could have possibly benefited from Rajni playing Akshay’s character as well instead of playing various versions of Chitti ? The flashback didn’t work for me at well because of Akshay’s lip sync and there was Rajini battling it out against Rajini would have been more fun!

@ Srinivasan R – Thanks! Exactly what I meant and I couldn’t have explained it better. 🙂

@ Sanjana – Thanks for the compliment! It’s a him. 🙂

I just watched the movie and I really liked it and it will be a super hit not because people are gonna watch it to save Indian cinema but because of positive word of mouth about the content.

I disagree with regards to rajni looking tired…I felt it was a very energetic performance…Even the dull vaseegaran is elevated in many places by him (can’t get over the role being written for kamal hassan…he’d have given us a better vaseegaran)…The biggest mystery for me is how they managed to cut the dullest trailer possible for this movie…Even without spoilers there was so much else that could have been used…

A major surprise was the amy jackson character – i had gone in with the impression that her’s was gonna be just an eye candy role but I was surprised as to how pivotal she was for the movie.

I had not expected shankar to get back in form in such a massive way…People who are calling this movie a vfx extravaganza are doing a massive disservice to shankar whose ideas are what made those vfx shots work. So in my opinion it is 60% Shankar’s ideas + 40% execution by technical side which should take credit — so I partially agree on this point with Dracarys… Sorry I partially agreed…Until o saw the paranjali products near chitti 3.0 in the post – credits scene and sorry I was wrong all along…This is indeed a completely Indian movie…

The Akshay Kumar backstory was beautifully done and the only flaw is the editing in the second half but I won’t blame the editor cause there were a lot of time constraints and technical challenges involved…Especially editing accounting for cg shots and then reeditng after their incorporation must have been difficult as the vfx got delayed…(editor Anthony’s written interview on film companion talks abt the process)

@ Dracarys

I could be way of the mark here but I believe Indian animators are akin to i phone factories in China (please refer to film companion cheat sheet video on stop motion animation)

Regarding Odiyan – I rant here abt Odiyan today and they show the odiyan trailer before the movie…If the hoots and whistles are anything to go by people loved it…@monsach – love your comment I’ll reply tmrw as it might get long…

Was planning to catch the movie today but they have hiked up the prices. The tickets are absurdly priced at Aussie dollars 24 per ticket, more than double of what I had paid for MI6. What I did notice is that this movie has got a bigger release than some of the Hollywood blockbusters- multiple shows in three languages. Anyway, I guess I would now have to wait.

I was on the fence about renewing my Netflix account with the trial period ending in a few days but the bright side of watching 2.0 ( and spending close to 1000 bucks) makes you realise that shelling out 500 bucks a month to watch things you might actually like isn’t such a bad idea, no?

Methinks, just like Enthiran, I’ll be taking up cudgels for this movie around these parts for some time to come:-)

I enjoyed 2.0 immensely. Not gonna say I love it to death, it has problems tonally and structurally, but I went in with certain expectations which were more than met. If I had bothered to selfie myself in the cinema at any point during the movie, the picture would have showed a big goofy grin plastered on my mug.

Let’s give some freaking credit where it’s due. To Shankar’s sheer breadth of imagination. No film-maker working in India today (Ok, Raja Mouli comes close) thinks this BIG, and has the sheer will and cojones to make it a reality.

Make no mistake, until another film-maker demonstrates such epic flights of fantasy and gets the financial backing to realize it, or more likely, until the next Shankar magnum opus, this is about as close a Tamil Movie is likely to get to the Hollywood Visual Effects Extravaganza Event Movie. It’s a Transformers Mecha Carnage, a Godzilla/King Kong style Monster Mash and Terminator style dystopian sci fi actioner and even a dash of Marvel (is this the first Tamil movie with a mid-credits scene?) served up with a heaping helping of a still popular and iconic South Indian Superstar’s Secret Sauce of effortless charisma and screen presence.

Rajini Style meets Shankar Spectacle and this time both walk away intact.

Many will groan inwardly as 2.0 eventually becomes “What if a Standard Shankar Vigilante Flick were to be set in the world of Enthiran?”, but there are a few nice surprises here as well. The standard Poignant Flashback Showing How Docile Character Becomes A Destructive Avenger in 2.0 is given…to the “villain”. The obligatory Romance Tracks and Filler Songs have been thankfully ditched.

Did it have problems? Sure.

Amidst the maelstrom of CGI razzle dazzle, character beats were naturally the first casualty. In the delightful Frankenstein Fable of Enthiran, both Chitti and Version 2.0 had so much more agency. Here they’re reduced to being Iron Man(Men) to Dr. Vasi’s Stark. And while Dr Bohra wasn’t actually a memorable villain in the original, the story arc for Bohra Jr in this movie is so insubstantial they might as well have done away with the character altogether.

But these are minor quibbles at best . Overlook them ,and this is popcorn-munching escapism at it’s absolute best!

“i might watch it or i will wait for petta to see a full on Rajni film”

Hahahaha…Brother MANK, you and I are always going to be on opposite ends of the divide when it comes to Shankar, and especially the Enthiran films.

As for Petta, I realise everyone’s amped up for a Rajini team up with a hot director, but I personally am going to temper that with the realization that NOTHING in Jigarthanda (which I enjoyed immensely) and Iraivi (less so) tells me KS is in anyway capable of delivering ,as you say, a full on Mass Rajini Vehicle.

They’re quirky dramas and subversive crime flicks , with a Tarantino-like love for smart patter and lowlifes…traditionally, not hallmarks of a Super Star movie.

At best, I’m expecting Petta to be another case of a director hijacking the Rajini Iconography to push his own brand of film (a la Kaala).

At worst, we’ll be getting another 2.0…Kabali 2.0: Over-Hyped and Underwhelming.

(Original) V…I’d say that there are far worthier contenders for borefest in the recent Rajini Oeuvre…like a descent into cheap-ass Motion Capture, a flaccid 4 hour documentary on Dam Building and a tonally uneven, sluggishly paced, rambling, wannabe Gangster Movie.

I’ve not watched 2.0. Based on this review and comments from my friends, looks like the makers should have learnt this basic lesson from ‘My dear Kuttichaathan’ makers:

From the wornderful FC article:

The writer in Paleri never allowed the film to get diluted for the sake of effects. Of course, there was going to be magic, but nothing that would ‘stick out’. “It’s a script that would have worked even if it was 2D. That was how I’d written the film,” Paleri adds, explaining how 3D alone wouldn’t have appealed to one’s emotions, citing the hundreds of kids who cried when Kuttichathan departs in the climax.

How do I Put this? Most of the Indian movie go watch Hollywood movies not for storyline or screenplay but just for spectacle and special effects. Until few years back, We cannot imagine a Tamil or Indian movie with special effects that do not appear as Special effects. And look What Shankar has done? In one single film, he has rewritten Indian cinema, where people can see Hollywood standard special effects in an Indian movie. That’s a game changer!! Its all about perception!..It’s about like whether we can do this. And once that mental ceiling is broken, we would see a lot of producer and directors coming on board to make “Hollywood” kind of movies.

I don’t see it as a big crime to promote the movie as national pride. Hollywood technicians do not have any kind of mental block but both creator and moviegoers do have those mental block that Indian cinema can never production and technical values on par with Hollywood and this movie destroy that mind block which is celebrated.

The 3D Effects…The depth in the 3D is so good that to be honest..i have watched a lot of movies in 3D and they all fell flat without any depth. But 2.0 has a lot of depth and I had absolute blast watching it in 3D. Sometimes I felt I was right there inside the story narration…

The movie does have a lot of problems. Ok. But then my question is does Indian moviegoers always look for Screenplay and quality writing. I was ROFL when some reviewers mention they lack emotional depth or character development. What emotional depth and character development or even screenplay does Fast and furious movies have? But then we pay them to watch and enjoy. But when an Indian director does it, we do look for writing and emotions..If this movie fails,, then that inferior mindblock can never be removed from Indian moviegoers.

But then I really had a nice time not only because of the special effects or 3D. Although the exhaustion do catchup because of wearing 3D glasses for a long time, The movie is an Absolute Blast.

e221: What emotional depth and character development or even screenplay does Fast and furious movies have?

(1) They have VERY well-written screenplays. The momentum on screen isn’t just from the cars zooming everywhere. It’s also due to how the whole thing has been WRITTEN.

(2) Emotional depth is optional in these films, but “making us root for or care about” is a must. It needn’t be “deep.” But it needs to be there. 2.0 is a badly written movie, with terrific VFX. So yes, if you say you didn’t care about anything else but the VFX, then that’s fine. But as a movie, the first half is ridiculously written and worse, draggy as hell (which none of the F&F movies are). So some of have issues…

@BR. The point is not whether fast and furious are good or bad. The point is whether people go and watch all Hollywood movies just for the writing. There are lot of people who just watch them for the sake of special effects. Are you saying that all the Hollywood movies have great writing and only those movies with good writing run across the world and India? Transformers movies had great writing too?

My another point is why should we so harsh for the lapse in writing. Nobody says that writing is great. Whether writer Shankar is good or bad is a different story. But consider the ambition the director sets out to do and if he achieved the vision he envisioned, then these hiccups can be forgiven.

In your review, you have not mentioned a single word about 3D. You have not even appreciated the 3D part of the movies etc. Does that make your review a bad one? Why is that? You missed reviewing the key aspect of this movie. Does that make you review a bad one?

Again I am not saying that writing should be mediocre if there is technical excellence. But the first half is not entirely unwatchable as you say(again that might be your experience) and as a critic, you should do it. But when ordinary moviegoers watch and pay to most of the Hollywood movies that are trashed by Hollywood audience themselves and when each moviegoer turns into a critic and apply a different set of standard when an Indian director comes and set out to do something new, that is hypocrisy. The level of hate that exhibited and spread about this movie that too in twitter is mindboggling.

Spot on review! Enjoyable flick, I’d have preferred a little more coherence and a slightly spaced out cgi/vfx, to be able to appreciate the effort. That sparrow scene is baffling, with what Resul said especially.

I love birds and so I found it kind & endearing that this huge spectacle was about a 30gm being. I liked the Akshay Kumar flashback portions a lot. Needs institutional changes to for any meaningful progress, hardly likely. But the problem is very real.

Rajini was great, dot.

Now we see how much someone like Sujatha and Balakumaran contributed to the writing and elevated his films, they are sorely missed!

BR did the cop-out of the century by not giving a review for enthiran, if I remember. Glad, FC is making sure he had to react to 2.0. 😀

I just watched the behindwoods discussion and loved it. I couldn’t help thinking rajni has become such a monolith creating an antagonist for him is impossible. Which is why I’m excited to see how Nawazuddin does in Petta.

Im not a Rajni fan – so did the film offer something for those like me? Not really. As BRs header says, only Shankar’s whacky imagination came to the rescue of this social-fantasy (pudhu genre) in the end.

What was the need to establish so much about the plight of birds, only to make a mockery in the end? Couldnt the antagonist have been a badass villain – did Akshay’s image come in the way of having an out and out negative character? As some one in the comment space said, why not have Rajni himself play Pakshi Rajan’s aura’s manifestation – afterall dont we have the precedence of two other Tamil stars playing all the roles in their films? When there is anyway an overload of Rajni’s clones in the film, one more wouldnt make a difference would it?! Plus, when Vasee, Chitti & 2.0 reappear in the film, there isnt anything new about Rajni & his performance here which wasnt there in Enthiran.

I liked the flashback portion – have always liked Shankar’s flashbacks. OTT, cheesy, manipulative – but tugs at your heartstrings nevertheless. But within a span of 20 minutes, if the same sentiments are ridiculed – that too by none other than the Protagonist, it dint sit well with me.
In Indian too, the younger Kamal who was projected as the hero till about 3/4ths of the film, became the bad guy in the end. But there was no conflict of emotions because we could see the slow and steady transformation of Chandhru into the corrupt monster he ends up to be. Here Pakshi Rajan is the kind of guy, who, even after becoming Bird Man targets only those who had wronged him in the past. (He even chooses to incinerate only Bohra junior in the stadium & not anyone from the remaining appaavi audience).

And about Rajni’s performance – his dialog delivery as Vasee was strange. Those technical terms dint quite roll out of his tongue smoothly. Which is alright. But how different is his Cuckoo style from Lakalakalaka or Mottai boss’ trring or Howwwisit? He is stylish, charismatic spirited etc – but by now, his mannerisms are like ticking a box and nothing quirky. Which is why I liked Kaala that stayed away from all this and showed him in a serious avatar. I hope Karthik Subburaj will just focus on presenting Rajni stylishly and not resort to having overt mannerisms or punch-lines.

Anyways, seeing the crowd for a 9 am show, the film is likely to be a blockbuster in TN, but in my opinion, may not be remembered for long. (To draw parallels: Anniyan is still remembered for Rules Ramanujam, Garuda Puranam, 5 paisa thirudina thappa, Vikram’s multiple transformation scene etc)

I liked Nila and Amy plays her perfectly. Nila is the kind of character which the late writer Sujatha would create. Much like his Vasanth (of the Ganesh-Vasanth duo, lawyers + sleuths), who would rattle off pop culture references at the drop of the hat, would appear frivolous & flirty, but at the right moment would be steps ahead of his mentor & come to his rescue.

It would be interesting to check with Shankar if this character was conceived for Enthiran by Sujatha & was chopped off in the final draft, for this one reminds me of Sujatha’s Vasanth a lot.

To say that this film is a VFXfest and nothing else is, frankly, being disrespectful to Shankar. I agree that the screenplay was weak and the plot a carbon copy of his previous films but the set-pieces are so imaginatively conceived and executed. I actually loved the first half of the film, the set-piece where the mobile phone swarm destroys the phone tower using the army tanks was genius. And the bird was so horrific and at the same time so elegant.

The second slowed down because of the flashback. But the climax did not really drag on the way it did in, say, Man of Steel. In fact, I actually thought the conclusion was really swift. After the microbots arrive, victory is pretty much guaranteed and Pakshi is clearly shown to be clueless. I would have enjoyed some more time with Chitti 2.0. Me thinks they edited out some footage to be keep the length of the movie in check.

Ultimately, Shankar went for a safe plot/screenplay because the set-pieces were so challenging. This movie deserves accolades not (only) because it was made in India, but because the spectacle really is world class. It is disappointing that a lot of critics (not BR) are brushing it off as simply “over-the-top vfx on steroids” which is kind of true but not really.

So here I was out to see the movie with my wife on my wedding anniversary today. I hate watching movies in 3D after a couple of bad experiences that left me with nasty headaches. But since I had prebooked these tickets unaware that it was 3D, I had prepared myself to watch it. The poorly cut trailer made sure that expectations were not high. And then surprise, surprise!! From when the opening credits started rolling out, the quality and depth of 3D wowed me. If you are watching this movie, make sure you watch in 3D. Although it IS a formulaic Shankar movie, it was a fun and entertaining watch and I found myself smiling and giggling in many places. I didnt particularly enjoy the introduction action sequence of Chitti which seemed a little tacky and also the lenthy flashback sequence of AK. Second half is actually a really fun sci fi comedy. I thought a lot of original imagination and creativity has gone into this movie which must be really appreciated. I wonder if BR watched the movie in 3D or 2D?

“shut the mouth and show that in the movie is what I always want to say .” — Exactly!

“Any news around Randamuzham (1000 crs budget and all that nonsense !) was just used as a promotion for Odiyan ” — I never thought about it this way, this makes total sense!

“I really doubt whether Sreekumar Menon even read Randamuzham as no one in his right sense can see Mahabharatham in Randamuzham !” – Hahaha…I don’t think Sreekumar Menon has read anything including the script of Odiyan…

My theory abt Randamoozham – Mr. B.R.Shetty watches Bahubali and realises the potential of tapping into Indian mythology…So he tells his team to come up with something and they decide to make a mahabharatha theme park…Now just like how the Akshardham temple plays some techno wiz movie – mr shetty too needs some kind of a movie cine entertainment show to be shown at his park…Mr Sreekumar Menon comes to know abt this and uses all his smooth talking and buttering skills to grab the deal for himself…Now comes the problem…He has ni bound script…He wants a bound script on the Mahabharata…He comes to know abt Mr. MTV Nair having some script titled Randamoozham…He tries to get the script and hears MTV is some big shot ….So he uses his goodwill with Mohanlal to get the script from MTV who anyway was desperate to see it made and here comes a guy with mohanlal’s reccomendation…

I liked the movie too and I watched it in 2D because the tickets for the 3D shows are getting impossible to grab. I wasn’t impressed with Enthiran and didn’t like 2.0’s trailers too so I had really low expectations for this one but I was pleasantly surprised while watching the movie.Ditching the love track and other irritating sequences like searching for a specific mosquito that bit the heroine and rescuing the said-heroine from the rapists and the Kalabhavan Manis has done a world of wonders for the movie. The VFX which looked pretty amatuerish in the trailers looked magnificent inside the movie hall. I was thankful when Shankar said he had to abandon his earlier idea of having the movie song-free because of A.R.Rahman, but now I can see that this film would have worked even if there were no songs in it.

The one person whom I rooted for is Rajnikanth. He has pretty much elevated the movie along with the vfx department. I expected much more of his punch-lines and trademark mannerisms but still I liked what he had done for the whole film.

Akshay Kumar’s role made me care for the character and for the actor . Poor guy, how much did he actually shoot for this? Most of his appearance was through CGI anyway. And it didn’t even look like they do in the Marvel movies , where they shoot the scene with the actors in front of a green screen and then apply CGI.Here it looked like they would have got by just by using a picture of AK in Pakshirajan’s character.

Amy Jackson’s character too isn’t being the annoying or the helpless heroine – the only two kinds that seem to exist in our mainstream films. Yes, she does appear in the sidelines only but it was nice to see her being treated with a little bit of respect unlike Shankar’s earlier movies. Maybe her being an actual robot helped ?!

Also , is the running time actually lesser than Enthiran’s? It sure seemed so.

@rsyl: You HAVE to watch it in 3d – it was meant to be watched in 3d and it really is v immersive. Looked way better than the Hollywood flicks that are post produced 3d – you can really tell it was shot in 3d.

It was shocking to see ‘anniyan kuruvi thatha’ marketed to us as a sci-fi (how different Endhiran is from other Shankar movies!!). It would have been better if they had gone the supernatural route than trying to be scientific about it.

The lengthy-ness had to do with the repetitive things in the narration. And also, there was a bit of self-congradulatory gaping at their own spectacle during the end portions.
But I was ready to forgive them as desperate attempts at underlining, underscoring prevalent in the big movies. The very label ’sci-fi’ alienates a majority of Indian audience. Unless a big budget movie has anything to add to the wedding catalogue, it becomes a niche thing. In this milieu, to have this ambition and vision, isn’t that something?
Since this piece is just an instant reaction than movie criticism, as mentioned here

Why go on and on about something that could be summarised as ‘the script is not snappy enough’? (Wasn’t it clever enough that we forget the ‘Bird CRT sequence’ (3 idiots is evil) and root for the villain?) Why not give that space to the spectacle part of the movie? why not reserve all the criticism for a little later? Why not, at least mention the audacity to skip songs in such a high budget movie?

Lack of budgets is cited as the reason for Indian cinema not being able to match Hollywood. Even if we get that kind of money, given the skill-set and work-ethic, isn’t it much much more difficult to execute this kind of a movie in India? When something like this with no precedent happens, can we just back it up, for now? Because

“The new needs friends.”

Isn’t this new, path-breaking? Does Shankar need to be taken seriously as someone who has opened up new avenues? Or, is this just ’that crazy fellow Shankar doing some crazy stuff?’
It’s a ‘0.9’. Not ‘2.0’. But 2.0 stands all alone. Without peers. Without even failed attempts to compare it with.

The abrupt end to Punkrocker-meets-Stormtrooper Chitti’s badasserie (with the total kela explanation about “auto-eject” chips) apart this was a wholly satisfying, fiendishly-clever-in-its-juvenile-vein enterprise. And I totally disagree with Rangan’s review saying the setup took too much time. It took far less time than Endhiran and jettisoned (at least minimized to disposable phone conversations) the crappy romance bits the predecessor was crippled with.

@anon – I know !!! But like I said its getting impossible to snag a 3D ticket for the movie , thankfully one of my friends is yet to watch it so thinking of tagging along for a second viewing hopefully in 3D this time.

Happy to see the support this movie is getting here. I have watched few English movies in 3D. Once in Imax. Never liked the experience. Quite surprised that there was no strain while watching this movie and level of depth was amazing. At the end I was feeling proud and nostalgic about what Shankar has achieved. As BR pointed out there r issues with the writing at few places. but it isn’t too bad either. It was engaging for me. I am sure most will be willing to forgive after witnessing the spectacle. Kids will love it. One has to also take into accout that vfx has changed hands due to original company going bankrupt. This would have also affected final product a bit, in terms of narration.

Just watched the 3D version (dubbed in Hindi), and loved it. I enjoy Rangan’s reviews, and liked this one too, but I felt here his writing was a bit rushed and somewhat like the Anupama Chopra/Taran Adarsh/Rajeev Masand kind of ‘reviews’.

I completely agree with him when he says the bird’s last sound being drowned out at that moment by the background music somewhat lessened the scene’s impact, and I guess the director decided that himself.

About there being no heist scene for Bohra Jr’s revenge or no investigation when Vaseegaran and Nila search for the missing phones’ location – yes that would be beautiful, except the film would then be 4 hours long, and not 2.5 as it is.

He implies in an earlier comment that one cannot care about or root for anything in the film – but I rooted for Akshay Kumar’s character and wanted him to ‘win’ (:D I know, it’s a Rajinikanth film). The flashback was kind of cheesy, and the film could have shown in a bit more detail the scenario which drove him to his death, but I overall I liked it.

It was SUCH a relief to not have gimmicks like Superstar’s circus entry, songs and dances etc. Also, without giving anything away, I personally felt Shankar tried to show that neither the hero (heroes, in this case) or the villain is really good/bad here, and that’s always interesting.

Finally, I applaud Shankar’s guts make a $75m science-fiction film in India, knowing what kind of films Indians usually like. Then, to have the imagination for the sequences as shown, and to have those actually realized by the special effects, is just brilliant. I fear, though, that the film will not make as much money as what the makers were hoping for.

“2.0” was mostly entertaining, but “Enthiran” had a sense of wonder and surprise that was lacking here. Like Chitti, we too were learning and discovering the world of this film, so even tangential scenes like the mosquito scene were fun because they were so out-there.

Dr. Bohra was kind of an unremarkable villain, but he was responsible for Chitti 2.0, who betrayed Bohra and became the REAL villain of the film. Of course the ultimate villain for this story could only be Bad Chitti. And what a fun surprise it was to see Rajini as a villain again! He had an evil swagger and cocksureness we hadn’t seen in a long time, especially since within the film Rajini wasn’t his usual charismatic self. Pakshirajan wasn’t as fun a villain, and in fact HE was the more sympathetic one. So I had an issue with Vasigaran being the one at the end to talk about radiation, etc. We didn’t need to have Vasi rehash those points because the flashback already covered that. No need to preach to us with a summary of these points. Also, who is the message aimed at, cell phone company executives? Ironic, considering that a cell phone company funded the film!

With Bad Chitti we got two pretty huge set-pieces, the post-wedding action scenes, and, of course, the big climax. Somehow these felt bigger than the climax of 2.0, which was confined to a stadium. And the visuals of the different formations of the Chitti clones, fire the circle of guns, etc. that were surprising and thrilling in the first one were just rehashed here, except that in “2.0” all those things were used to fight the villain.

The first cell phone store owner death could have been shown at full-length, but the subsequent ones could have been trimmed, because we already know what’s going to happen. No need to see the entire process again, except maybe to show off the VFX work.

Wouldn’t a giant ball firing guns in all directions have killed everyone in that stadium?

Overall it was entertaining, but it didn’t have the frisson of watching something new, the way “Enthiran” did. But I think it’s a huge milestone that an Indian film could have VFX not just of this quality but of this imagination. And it’s a HUGE deal that a popular filmmaker like Shankar made a record-breakingly expensive film with Rajinikanth with no songs. It’s a demonstration in a big way that even a film going for massive popular appeal doesn’t really NEED these songs.